Fund manager and property owner Areim announced it has a €450 million (USD$485 million) capital raise for its Areim DC Fund to support the development of sustainable data centers in Nordic countries, bringing the fund’s total raised capital to €900 million (USD $971 million).

The capital will be used to expand its subsidiary, EcoDataCenter, which designs, builds and operates data centers in Sweden powered by renewable energy, Areim said.

Areim, founded in Stockholm in 2003, is an independent fund manager that also owns and develops real-estate and companies throughout the Nordic region in the light industrial, residential, office, retail, and data center sectors. In 2023, Areim DC Fund took full control of EcoDataCenter, after taking a majority stake in the firm in 2018.

Henrik Brinck Landelius, CEO of Areim, said:

“The continuous strong support we have received from both existing and new investors is a testament to the strategy of our dedicated data center fund. The substantial interest in the Areim DC Fund and EcoDataCenter underlines the demand and attractiveness of the Nordic market for data centers. There is a lot of activity in this space, and the additional investments are important for growing the platform further. I would also like to show my appreciation to the team for their successful fundraising. We are now well-positioned to continue to deliver value to customers, our investors, and other key stakeholders.”

The demand for sustainability in data centers is growing, as the rapid growth of AI threatens to challenge global carbon emissions reduction efforts. The IEA estimates that AI-driven data center power usage could double by 2026 and expand rapidly over the next several years. Several tech giants, including Microsoft, Google and Amazon, have highlighted increased energy needs to meet the AI-driven growth in data centers as a key challenge to their decarbonization goals.

Key sustainability features of EcoDataCenter’s data centers include running on 100% renewable energy, a 98% reduction in carbon emissions compared to major markets, and a structure design that is three times more efficient in terms of embodied carbon relative to traditional data centers.

Leif Andersson, founder of Areim and Chairman of EcoDataCenter, said:

“When we first decided to invest in EcoDataCenter, we saw the inherent potential in sustainable data centers to meet the rising demand for digital infrastructure. A lot has happened since, and data centers now form fundamental building blocks of this infrastructure, regardless of the data loads’ origins and use. We look forward to continuing to lead the development of data centers in the Nordics as the demand for digitalization and AI keeps rising.”